The Path Taken

Chapter 1

New Friends

The forests of Konoha were silent in the still morning. The only noises being birds chirping, the leaves in the trees rustling, and the footsteps of two shinobi. The shinobi had black cloaks with red clouds adorning them. However the most distinctive feature about them was that that the male had spiky orange hair and a large amount of peircings on his face and the female had blue hair with an oragami flower in it. The silence between them continuing until the blue haired woman spoke.

"So why are we going to Konoha?" she asked.

The male replied "We are going to check on the Kyuubi jinchurriki who should be about 6 years old right now."

The woman became shocked "WHAT? The Kyuubi should be the last one we get Nagato! Wouldn't that mess up the balance of power in the Gedo Mazo statue?

The man now known as Nagato spoke. "Relax Konan, we are merely going to observe the jinchurriki for now and... Itachi says he is adorable."

Konan giggled "Watch out there Nagato, your emotion is showing."

The two soon reached the gates of Konoha and Konan whistled at the size of the walls "I wonder if they are overcompensating for the strength of their forces." the two entered through the gates and the guard spoke up. "Please state your business in Konoha." Nagato turned to them "Visiting a friend." he said plainly. The guard then replied "Very well, enjoy your stay in Konoha and stay out of trouble." Nagato and Konan then went to find the jinchurriki.

The two searched or hours but couldn't find the jinchurriki. They continued their search until they heard a commotion in an alley. They looked to find a large amount of men surrounding one child. There were shouts of DIE DEMON BRAT and GO TO HELL KYUUBI as the men beat the child mercilessly. Konan had pieces of paper form into knives and launch at each of the men, impaling each of their hearts and killing them instantly. Nagato and Konan walked up to the boy who was still conscious and trying to crawl away from them whilst whimpering and crying until Konan kneeled down and spoke with a soft and angelic voice. "Relax, we are not here to hurt you, what is your name?" The boy looked up and azure eyes stared into grey and the boy answered "N-Naruto." Konan smiled and spoke to him reassuringly "I am Konan and the man back there is Pein. We are here to help you." they looked at Pein who was still shaking with rage. "Why" Pein said, "Why would they do this, they know pain from the Kyuubi attack yet they have gotten worse, could our plan be flawed? Could pain not be the answer? If so, then what is?" he asked himself then turned to Konan, "Come Konan, we're leaving this forsaken town."

"What about the kid?"

"Bring him with us, no point in leaving him here if the village won't care for him."

Konan turned to Naruto "Want to come with us?" she asked in her soft voice getting a nod from Naruto. "Konan I need you to fly him out of here." said Pein. Konan turned to him "And what trouble are you getting into?" Pein chuckled "just a talk with the Hokage." Konan nodded and took Naruto out of Konoha by flying with her paper wings and Pein started leaping on rooftops to get to the Hokage tower.

*******************HOKAGE TOWER*******************

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, hailed as The Professor of Shinobi was tackling his worst enemy. Paperwork. He sighed in exhaustion as he stamped his probably thousandth paper. He stopped however, when he looked up to see a man with orange hair and a lot of peircings. Sarutobi put down his stamp and sighed "May I help you with something?" he asked Pein looked at him with hatred "Yes, why does your village treat the Kyuubi jinchurriki with such disrespect?" Pein asked. Sarutobi looked up in shock at the man and sighed "The boy can't seem to catch a break now can he? The villagers see him as the Kyuubi and not the jailer. So they lash out at him and try to kill him thinking it would kill the Kyuubi in the process." Pein was wide eyed at the villager's stupidity. "Well I am taking the boy out of this hateful village, and I am going to raise him as my own." Sarutobi was pleased with the man, "Very well make sure he gets this when you think he is ready." he said giving Pein a box with a blood seal on it. "I wish you both well and I thank you for what you are doing for him. He has had an extremely hard life and needs a better one than the village can offer him" Sarutobi said as Pein left his office through the window. "Oh great I can see the paperwork now." Sarutobi sighed as he looked up at his Hokage hat and his eyes widened because on the hat was a note. "USE SHADOW CLONES - Sincerely Minato" Sarutobi got a paper from his desk. The paper had a target on it with barely legible writing on it saying HIT HERE. "STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID!" Sarutobi yelled as he banged his head on the target.

********************OUTSIDE OF KONOHA**************************

Konan had just gotten Naruto to sleep and was exhausted from the ordeal as she slumped against a tree and sighed. It was almost impossible to get the kid to sleep, the child kept crying because he thought someone was going to kill him in his sleep. Now he was tossing and turning in a fitful sleep as he was having a nightmare. Konan sighed "Poor kid, those villagers were terrible to him and now he is still suffering from it." she said as she walked up to him to see an odd seal on his forehead. She gasped as she realized that it was a nightmare seal and got to work on removing it.

**************************NARUTO'S DREAM**************************

Naruto was in an odd world where he was tied up to a chair and was panicking while trying to escape the chair. Then after a few minutes of trying, he heard an evil giggle and looked to see a pink haired woman walking towards him. The woman then spoke "So the Demon finally sleeps. I really have to thank that Yamanaka for his nightmare seal, now I can do whatever I want to you." she said with an evil grin as she got closer and looked at the boy with hatred in her eyes. "W-Who are y-you, why are you d-doing t-this to me?" Naruto asked. The woman then laughed "You look so weak Kyuubi, if you must know, you killed my husband and I am simply getting revenge." she said as the place around them warped and became a field of fire and all of Naruto's worst nightmares flashed in front of him." After seemingly two hours of the torture, the pink headed lady decided it wasn't enough as she intensified the torture while laughing evilly as Naruto relived every Villager attack he has ever suffered.

****************************REAL WORLD******************************

After two hours of preparing a counter seal for Naruto, Konan had a counter seal ready and placed it on the nightmare seal as Naruto jolted upright and started crying. He stopped when he felt a warm embrace as he was hugged by Konan who was whispering encouraging words with a soothing voice. She then finally felt his breathing steady as he once again fell asleep. She then heard someone approaching and turned to see Pein standing behind her with a dumbfound look on his face. "What the hell happened to him?" asked Pein. "Someone implanted a nightmare seal on him and put him through hell. I just got him to sleep again after I removed the god awful seal on him." Pein nodded and slumped down next to her. "It would seem that my ways of achieving peace are all wrong. I need some time to think of a new way to achieve peace." Pein said. Konan smiled at him "Maybe it's the opposite of what you first believed maybe peace is achieved through joy." she said "Maybe we don't need the Bijuu to achieve it." Pein smiled and looked at the boy who was now sleeping soundly. "No, we don't need the bijuu, maybe we could remake Ame into a village with that is determined to bring peace to the world." he said to the smiling woman next to him. And they stood up and went to sleep.

************************THE NEXT MORNING**********************

Pein woke up to see that Naruto wasn't in the tent he got up quickly and woke up Konan. "Konan wake up Naruto is gone!" he said. Konan shot up and they both ran out of the tent to see Naruto crouched in the middle of the field holding his hands over his eyes. Konan walked up to him and asked what was wrong. "M-my eyes hurt." Naruto said. Konan removed his hands to see that his eyes were indeed different as the child now had a familiar ripple pattern yet were the boy's usual azure blue instead of Nagato's greyish purple. Konan was completely shocked at Naruto's new eyes. "N-Nagato y-you need to see this!" she called to Pein. Pein came over to see what was happening and gasped when he saw Naruto's new rinnegan. "N-Naruto you have the Rinnegan!" he yelled as Naruto looked up at him with a confused look "Rinnegan?" he asked. Nagato then explained "The Rinnegan is a dojutsu that was originally used by the Rikudou Sennin. It grants the user amazing powers such as control over the five main elements. And you can do things like this. Bansho Tennin!" He yelled as he uprooted a tree and it flew towards him "Shinra Tensei!" he then yelled as the tree was blown apart by an invisible force. Naruto watched wide eyed while the tree was annihilated by an invisible force. Then Pein started floating in the air "And you are able to fly." he said as he flew around, much to Naruto's excitement.

Konan packed up the large tent by sealing it into a scroll and cooked up some breakfast and walked over to the Pein and Naruto to see Naruto shooting trees with invisible pulses of gravity and Pein was staring in shock as the trees exploded as soon as Naruto's ball of gravity hit it. Then Konan decided to stop the destruction and yelled that it was time to eat. The trio ate and Naruto asked what else the Rinnegan could do. Pein replied that Naruto will find out the other abilities soon enough and that Naruto will be trained to use the Rinnegan. Naruto asked where they were going to go. "We are going to Amegakure to rule it and make peace happen throughout the world, but first we must go see my subordinates" Naruto became excited once again and turned to Konan "Konan nee-chan, what else can you do with paper?" he asked and Konan made tons of butterflies that fluttered around the clearing as Naruto stared in delight at the butterflies. Once they were done they left to see Pein's subordinates who Pein said were an odd bunch. Naruto was excited to meet them the others. While they walked Pein was holding a black ball of chakra that he said Naruto will learn how to make later. After an hour the black ball dissipated and a reddish orangish red ring with the kanji for fox in its red jewel. Naruto looked amazed at the ring as he put it on. Pein looked to him and explained that the ring helps Pein find Naruto wherever he is and if he channels chakra into the ring it shoots off a fireball. Naruto pointed the ring at a tree and channeled chakra into it and a red fireball shot and decimated the tree. Naruto then heard Pein's call. "Come on Naruto, we're here."

That was my first chapter of my fanfic The Path Taken and yes, Pein is a good guy because of Naruto and I am going to say this now, there is no serious Tobi, he will remain the fun loving, crazy bastard we know and love. So let me know how I did. R&R